Home Forums Hunting & Shooting AR and Tactical Rifles sierra 69 grain matchkings

I asked this over on the deer forum, but I am just wondering if the 69 HPBT matchkings expand any or fragment any. Maybe Jeff has shot a deer with one, just wondering if they are effective on small to medium game. They are from some manufacturers 10 cents a round cheaper in bulk than gold dots, etc.

Never had an issue with them not working on game.

Did hit a thorny vine once in front of a buck and it deflected the bullet down so it broke the front leg under the brisket... I don't think the deer ever died, but we did trail him for about 6 hours just in case.

I tend to prefer to use 75 or 77s, and truth be told 62 or 55 TTSX actually. But I don't hesitate if the mag has 69s in it. Old ones, not the tipped ones. Never seen a tipped SMK.

That said, I have heard of issues with almost all of the SMKs eventually. Buddy of mine was using 168s... but then he shot the onside shoulder of a large bodied deer and it "failed".... I"m don't count that as failed. I count that as NOT the shot I'd take with that bullet.

YMMV

Regardless of reports where MatchKings work on game, Sierra doesn't recommend them as they can't be depended on to work reliably. I found out some years ago that coyotes well hit with 52 MKs would run off about half the time. I had much better success afters switching to a real varmint bullet.

The heavier MKs will likely work on deer some or even much of the time, but there are better and more humane bullets designed for hunting.

I see coyotes run off after being hit with 185 bergers......

Reliably for me with SMKs has been 100% so far. FWIW.

If you need em to DRT you have to CNS ANY animal to be 100% reliable DRT. Simple.

My BIL can't shoot worth a flip on coyotes when we call them, and even using dang ballistic tips I've yet to find one after he has shot one.... OTOH at home many years ago he shot only 52SMKs out of his 223 and according to son and wife, killed lots of them on gut piles.

YMMV.

I am with you on this one Jeff, the 77 matchking seems to kill bad guys overseas better. 69 may not be as dramatic but the same mechanism of destruction must be operative.

When the bullet strikes soft tissue, the heavier base comes around and causes the bullet to yaw, or tumble. The hollow nose cone breaks off and often the bullet fragments at the cannelure. This happens across a wide range of the velocity spectrum, which is why MK 262 Mod 1 proved effective in SBRs in addition to the longer-barreled SPRs.

JMO, but if you're going for terminal performance with a BTHP like the SMK, in my experience you can expect more consistent results with the Hornady 75gr. That's not based on any big game kills with either bullet personally, but I have done a bunch of simulation testing and shot lots of small game with both. The SMK works well a lot of the time, but upset/fragmentation/etc just doesn't seem quite as consistent or reliable; I'd guess that's due to jacket thickness/hardness as well as the tip size and shape.

All of my rifles seemed to like both of those bullets anyway, so it wasn't any sacrifice to switch to the 75gr Hornady.

Never shot a cannelured 77.

Have OTOH shot a lot of 75 H BTHP and Amax. In fact have a couple thousand BTHP in a box somewhere that I reach into now and then to top off used mags around the house.

Its rare for me to shoot a 69 anymore though I am one of the rare ones thats never had a single problem with any SMK vs deer or pigs. I had one "failure" of an SMK, on a deer, of all things I had a 52 bhp in the gun ( in the days I thought lock time meant something in 200 yard offhand matches) and I hit a deer to low, putting it through the nose... was the intention... the result ended up through the bottom front teeth... it did not penetrate after that and made that job hard to finish. Which led me back to light for caliber is just not my thing. Even hard for me to do it with mono bullets actually.... I'll do mono 168s in a 308... but generally run 185 bergers and will be moving up to 210 bergers or is it 215.....

The smaller rounds you get to, there just isn't much room for error.

Again I've seen probably 10 bad failures of Sierra Game Kings along the years.... so shooting match kings doesn't bother me one bit, since everyone else says game kings are just fine.... LOL

BTW IMHO the non expansive failures of SMKs I suspect are angular impacts of which I almost never even attempt given the bullet(except cranial shots) and I believe the cavity gets slammed shut and or to the side and smeared, instead of allowing it to start some expansion. I may be wrong on this, but its what I feel.